Stabilizer bars are part of a cars suspension system. They are sometimes also called anti-sway bars or anti-roll bars or sway bars. Their purpose in life is to try to keep the car's body from "rolling" in a turn.

Think about what happens to a car in a turn. If you are inside the car, you know that your body gets pulled toward the outside of the turn. The same thing is happening to all the parts of the car. So the part of the car on the outside of the turn gets pushed down toward the road and the part of the car on the inside of the turn rises up. In other words, the body of the car "rolls" 10 or 20 or 30 degrees toward the outside of the turn. If you take a turn fast enough, the tyres on the inside of the turn can actually rise off the road.

Subaru Forester S was our entry for HTC 2011

How a GFB BOV works: A GFB valve operates on a pressure differential between the intercooler and the intake manifold. If they are both at the same pressure, i.e. WOT, the pressure top and bottom is equal and there is no resultant force. The spring then keeps the valve in the closed position. When the manifold pressure drops below the intercooler, there becomes an imbalance in the forces and the valve opens. Once the intercooler pressure is relieved, the spring closes the valve again

Spring pre-load – as above, the spring pre-load had nothing to do with the amount of boost pressure – a GFB valve stays shut regardless of whether boost is 5psi or 500psi. The spring pre-load is adjusted to balance the IDLE VACUUM. At idle, the spring should push the piston down just a little bit harder than the vacuum trying to open it, so the piston stays shut, but will open very easily if there is boost in the pipes that needs venting.

GFB vs factory: The operation method described above means that a GFB valve is shut until it is required to open, whereas a factory valve is usually open until required to shut. GFB’s method improves throttle response over the factory valve.

Non-car enthusiasts are very confused by this question. And the fuel companies haven’t helped – the number of different retail fuel products beggars belief.

In the past few years we’ve seen an explosion in the number of fuel products – many of which bear absolutely no resemblance to the way fuel is actually specified by car manufacturers.

Pop open the fuel flap on a contemporary car and you’re likely to see “Uleaded Fuel Only” inside the flap. Other options include “Premium Unleaded Only” or “98 Octane Unleaded Only”. Imagine how confusing that is when someone in an unfamiliar car pull up at a servo, next to a pump marked ‘V-Power’ or ‘Bio e-Flex’. It can be a difficult code to crack, for the uninitiated. There are consequences – sometimes severe ones – if you get this wrong. You could easily blow up your engine, or cause thousands of dollars worth of damage.

Here at MRT performance we have been involved in a lot of exciting events this year like the Motor Hot Tuner Challenge, Superlap and more. However the end of the year brings one of the most exciting things in years.

In 2007 we first launched the electronic version of the Subaru Performance Handbook to give you access to information and resources that previously came in a 500 page book.